Homeworld for Wayward Space Dwarfs

Devoted to the Preservation, Collection, Conversion, Painting, and Resurrection of Space Dwarfs.Beards for the Beard God!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Squats in Citadel Flyers: Historia Squataticus Appendix 2

The Saga of the Squats continues. This volume concerns Squats in Citadel Miniatures Flyers, of which there are not too many, since the Citadel Flyers were published in the mid to late 1980s for the most part, and Squats did not appear until 1987.

If a flyer is not included here, it means that I don't have it, and The Stuff of Legends doesn't have it either. All prices in this posting are in GBP unless otherwise noted.

And also includes the rare and awesome Chronicle Chaos Cannon for 9.95, Gun Platform 4.00, Left Side, Right Side 1.50 each, Commander, Loader, and Gunner 60p each (Loader and Gunner same as Petard Mortar), Gun 2.00, Cannon Balls 50p (noted as Unreleased despite the obvious).

We already saw these Squats, so here are the legendary Space Slann and Zoats as well.

Did you know that, despite their giant size and heavy weaponry, "Zoats were created as investigators, their main role being to understand and communicate with creatures outside the hive mind, assessing their value. Zoats are capable of assimilating information about languages and psychology with stunning speed, making rapid and accurate leaps in their comprehension of alien creatures. Due to this innate capability of understanding the subtlest nuances of facial and body language, Zoats are remarkably charismatic and enigmatic creatures who are able to convey more meaning in a look or gesture than a native can manage in a sentence"?

Neither did I. Could you read that without laughing? Neither could I. From White Dwarf 145, page 43. These guys. Charismatic. Can communicate with Ents with a gesture or a look.

Introduction to Games Workshop – Unclear date, has copyrights dated 1988, 1989, 1991 but also refers to items as to be released in 1989, and items that were never released, such as a Epic-style WFB system; 24 Color Pages including covers.

Page 19 promises to-be-released Epic Space Marine “Juggernauts and Zeppelins – two huge war machines that dwarf even the mighty Titans. Juggernauts are vast mobile fortresses, bristling with weapons; Zeppelins are great airships that float above the battlefield, dealing death to anything that dares approach them.” Which sounds like Squats Army vehicles.

2000 Battle for Armageddon – No Squats, but Ghazghkull knows where they are (1-sided color large fold-out poster campaign map)

2001 Inquisitor Release / North and South America Retailers – No Squats (2-sided color large fold-out poster flyer, came with White Dwarf 257)

2003 Eye of Terror - No Squats (1-sided color large fold-out poster flyer.) Black Monoliths on Cadia? Really GW? Hav'st thou no imagination? Hungry Ghosts just watched 2001, 2010, and Starship Troopers again. In the early days, we can forgive your borrowing. But Tyranids just keep looking more and more like a certain Mr. Heinlein's bugs.

2006 Dark Crusade – No Squats (2-sided color large fold-out poster of Special Character Conversions from US Games Workshop stores. Very nice minis.)

Dwarf Questions from Dad

HG's Dad: I thought the Dwarves were mostly preindustrial?

HG: You are listening to Elf-Lies. Many Dwarfs are preindustrial, but those Dwarfs are found on worlds where everyone is preindustrial, and even in these settings they tend to be the most technologically advanced critters on the planet. Space Dwarfs, on the other hand, are clearly post-industrial by their name, and created many of the variants of the Imperial Guard tanks in the picture you have down there.

Whether there are more Space Dwarfs than Dwarfs is a complex question, as modern physics would say there are an infinite number of each, and then go on to explain that there is a different kind of infinity to address the "infinity+infinity = 2 infinity?" problem, and we would all be confused as a monkey with a bowl of wax grapes.

Followers of the Moriad

HUNGRY GHOSTS: The Bones Beneath The Beards

The Legios Moriad XIV Regiment was assembled as an elite expeditionary force composed of troops from the League of Moriad, nine heavy gravity homeworlds near the edgeward borders of the Squat regions. Sent to investigate rumors of exotic mineral resources to be found on the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy, they instead discovered horrors from beyond the stars and from within their minds.

Rather than rich worlds awaiting the construction of mighty forgespires and deepest delvings, empty husks of pitted rock awaited. These grim discoveries drew the Moriad along the trail of wrecked worlds toward temptation. How efficient must be those who stripped these worlds, how mighty the machines and how wondrous the technologies, how surely these technologies would be shared with the Squats.

These were the thoughts the Squat commanders could not put to rest, thoughts that pounded ever louder as they pursued those who destroyed worlds. Their thirst for mechanical lore led them beyond the limits of the Astronomicon's flickers and into the maw of the Behemoth, the first fleet of the extragalatic Tyranid to drink from the Milky Way.

The Moriad were soon desperate for survival in the pincers of an advanced biotechnology that they struggled to comprehend and could not defeat. The mind of the expeditionary force commander, Gen Jengiz Stalkarlik, turned grimly toward the thoughts that had spurred the Moriad to chase the Tyranid fleet. Where the sane would have turned away, Gen Stalkarlik and his Moriad embraced their dark cravings and followed them to their source.

Some believe the Moriad were tainted from the start, others that they broke psychically from the emptiness of the edges of the galaxy in contrast to the snug corridors of their homeworlds. Whether driven by desire or desperation,* the Squat warriors called upon Lord Khorne, the dark god of blood and machines to save them from the Behemoth Tyranids. Mighty Khorne granted the Moriad their wish, in a fashion.

In the end, entirety of the Legios Moriad Expeditionary Force was slain by the Tyranid. As each soldier died, though, Khorne transported his corpse from the battlefield. Each awoke to undeath, refashioned by Khorne’s whims and the random chaos of their warpspace journey. All awoke in the Maelstrom, upon a blood red garnet the size of a planetoid, conveniently orbitted by a Chaos-corrupted spacecraft.

Ever restless, the Moriad soon forayed from the Maelstrom. Khorne provided them with weapons and minerals in the form of a Squat reconnaissance outpost to devour. It was here that they discovered their hunger for flesh could never be sated, though they could never starve. After futile feeding on the bodies of their brothers, the Moriad left the garnet planetoid and the Maelstrom to continue their eternal quest for new flesh and machines to consume.

Through centuries of unlife the Legios Moriad, rebaptised as The Hungry Ghosts, have collected a strange variety of weaponry and cybernetics dedicated to destruction in the name of Chaos. Some have become more machine than flesh, but none have found rest.

*In fact, Chaos had levered the smallest among them to speed them to doom. The Moriad were accompanied by a gaggle of Ratling cooks, as the only artful cuisine among the Squats is entirely alcoholic or geologic. Following one of the few paths to Khorne that Ratlings may find, the mission's head chef came already possessed of unholy hankerings for raw meats of allkinds. Soon the hallucinogenic poisons he mixed into every meal made the Squats keenly receptive to Khorne’s daemonic gibberings from the warp, and their common greed inflated into undying treason.

All original content contain in the Hungry Ghosts blog is copyrighted by James W Polichak, 2010-2011.Hungry Ghosts, Moriad, and the names of any character, vehicle, or unit are trademarks and copyrighted by James W Polichak.No claim is made upon any content produced by other authors that is discussed in this work, nor any terms or names that are trademarked by other authors.No claim is made concerning any content owned by Games Workshop, and any such content is used for artistic, historical, or reference purposes.